I've had one (ONE) paid reading, back in January of this year. I've got a box full of business cards, a few of which I gave out at local shops. But I'm lazy. I'm not much on self-promotion. The only people reading my blog are other readers (which I do appreciate) --and even that I have lost interest lately in updating. It's been weeks.
Oh well. Maybe I'll get interested in it all again one day.
Anyone else have this happen?
<compassionately> You need to find a venue. The discipline of being available in one place at a regular time will make a difference.
Where you live, is it accepted for cafes, or perhaps bookshops, to have a reader tucked away in a corner? If so, ask a few of them in your area, ones without a reader or with one only in once a week. Offer them one-quarter of everything you take (25%) as payment for the space. Explain that it will take a while for the word to get out, and there might be a couple of weeks with no income at all. Ask for two days a week: one during the weekend, and one during the week for the convenience of people with different working schedules.
Every time you have a good day at work, blog about it, even if you have had no clients (it is still possible to enjoy yourself). Take in books to read, crosswords or chrocheting to do between clients. Print out signage to sit on your table and/or blutack to the outside wall, and have it professionally laminated. And just keep coming back at your regular times.
If people whizz by and say they don't have time for readings, tell them that you also read remote by email (or skype or whatever you're comfortable with), and hand them a business card. If you have a coffee out with friends, leave a card on the table. If you visit the local hospital, leave one in the cafeteria and on the nurse's station of the ward you visit. If you catch a bus or train, leave one on your seat when you get off. If you fall into casual conversation with someone in a supermarket line, hand them a card without bothering to explain what you do, and ask them to keep in touch.
That's what I did. Business was slow to build up at my current venue (it's been months, and I still occasionally have a no-client day) but overall, I'm seeing more work than I did when I first started, and all because I simply put aside those days to sit there doing nothing rather than using the days "more productively" at home.
It's worth it.
(Is your blog URL on your card?)
Also depending on the local laws regarding junk mail in your area, you might like to use some of your surplus business cards by simply going for a walk on a fine day for your health and enjoyment, and dropping them into letterboxes as you go. 99% of my letterboxed business cards were wasted, but the few readings I've had that way (and one party) more than paid for the print-run and the hours I spent doing it. And I like walking, and need to walk for my health anyway, so it wasn't wasted time even if nothing had happened.